Don Roberts, whose stepgrandfather was Clarence Scheeler of Clarence & Lefty's, shared the recipe for Roast Beef Po-Boys as served in the iconic Almonaster Ave. dive that opened in 1932 and closed in 1978. He also gave directions for how the restaurant's hamburger steaks, shrimp salad and fish fry were made.

Roberts grew up at Clarence and Lefty's, and owned it for five years after Clarence died and Lefty retired. Roberts thinks maybe the roast beef recipe came from Lefty.

It takes two days to make. For home use, the amounts are given in parentheses.

Roberts says he has no idea if Horseshoe barbecue sauce is still made; he hasn't seen it in years. At home, he uses Kraft original. As for the rock salt, Morton's kosher salt is crushed rock salt.
Clarence and Lefty's roast beef for po-boys

50 to 60 pounds (5 pounds) top round roast beef

Many toes of garlic, peeled

30 ounces (¾ cup) Horseshoe brand barbecue sauce

20 ounces (½ cup) Horseshoe brand worcestershire sauce

10 ounces rock salt (2 tablespoons)

2 gallons (3 ¼ cups) water

Flour for roux

Cut beef into about 10 pieces. Put several toes of garlic into each piece, making a hole in the meat with a knife and inserting the garlic cloves. Put beef into an industrial-size baking pan.

Pour on the barbecue sauce, the worcestershire sauce and the rock salt. Pour 1 gallon (1½ cups) water into the bottom of the pan. Roast at 375 degrees for 2 hours.

Remove pan from oven and turn the meat over. Pour another gallon (1½ cups) of water into the bottom of the pan. Return to oven and roast another 1½ hours, for a total of 3½ hours cooking time.

Remove meat and allow to cool. Refrigerate beef. Pour the broth in the pan into gallon (quart) jars.

The next day, slice meat on a slicing machine.

To make gravy, remove the fat that has accumulated on top of the broth. Melt it and combine it with an equal amount of flour to make a roux. Add the rest of the broth to the roux to make gravy.

Warm roast slices in the gravy.

The po-boys were served dressed with mayo, lettuce, tomato and an optional pickle, on bread from Alois J. Binder, Roberts said.

After the roast beef, the next biggest seller at Clarence and Lefty's was the hot sausage po-boy -- yes, Patton's -- served in links.

The hamburger steak: "We just added some onions and garlic to raw ground beef before frying it," Roberts said. "The hamburger steak was just ground meat with onions and garlic."